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Where are all the women scientists?

26 April 2011

When Amy Csizmar Dalal was hired as an assistant professor of computer science at Carleton College in Northfield, Minnesota, she received anonymous phone calls harassing her at work for several years. She is still sometimes the only woman in the classroom during her lectures and she feels that some of her students treat her differently to her male colleagues, questioning her logic and judgment more often.

Her story sounds like a throwback to several decades ago, but she was hired in 2003.

“Most days, I absolutely love my job,” says Csizmar Dalal, who was the first female faculty member hired in her department. “There are also days when I compose my resignation letter in my head.”

Her experience isn’t an anomaly. A plethora of studies have shown that women in science still face more obstacles than men. The number of women in senior positions is not in line with the number of women qualified for the role, despite evidence showing that when women do apply, they are at least as likely as men to get hired (see bit.ly/gRPgLx for a summary). So why do women drop out of science before they can fill the top jobs?

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The good news is that it is not due to a lack of interest in the subject, as the proportion of women studying science and engineering continues to rise in most fields. In 2007, women earned more than half of all bachelor’s degrees, and really tipped the scales in biology, chemistry and agricultural sciences, according to the 2010 National Science Foundation Science and Engineering Indicators report.

The report also shows that women made up 50 per cent of doctoral candidates in 2006, with the majority of graduate students in psychology, medical and biological sciences, and social sciences. They comprised close to half of all graduate students in earth, atmospheric and ocean sciences, and more than one-third in mathematics, chemistry and astronomy. Computer science, engineering and physics brought up the rear, with about 22 per cent of candidates being women.

The numbers may paint a fairly rosy picture, but, overall, the number of women – and men – enrolled in science and engineering majors is falling. That has senior scientists concerned.

“The demographics in the US are changing, and engineering and science are not viewed as attractive careers for many people,” says Linda Abriola, dean of the School of Engineering at Tufts University in Medford, Massachusetts. “One of the things I’m trying to do as dean is put a different face on engineering. It’s not just about somebody working in the lab on their own for hours and hours at a time in a white lab coat with thick glasses. It can also be a very social profession.”

It could be the stereotype that is putting women off, but the field’s reputation for a poor work-life balance certainly can’t help. Microbiologist Rhea May, who earned her PhD in November 2010 from the University of Colorado at Boulder, says she knew embarking on a research career would mean a constant juggling act.

“To be successful in science, you’re going to have to overwork yourself whether you’re in academia or industry,” says May, who now logs long hours for a biotech start-up called Sharklet Technologies in Aurora, Colorado.

Rather than taking time off to start her family, May plans to continue working, but this isn’t an attractive option for everyone. Despite decades of attempts to turn the tide, women still drop out of the pipeline once they complete their training.

Joan Girgus, professor of psychology at Princeton University and special assistant to the dean of faculty, says the problem lies at the postdoc level. “I think women postdocs look at the tenure run and begin to worry about how you manage that kind of time commitment with family life,” she says. She believes that more women should think about starting their family while they are still postdocs, as there’s no ticking tenure clock to worry about. Princeton provides extensive family-related programs for graduate students, but the mishmash of postdoctoral funding sources makes it hard to provide help because external agencies often control researchers’ benefits.

“I think it’s a real dilemma,” says Girgus.

None of the above

But maybe it’s not the babies. A study of more than 3,700 female engineers carried out by Nadya Fouad and Romila Singh at the University of Wisconsin–Milwaukee revealed that only a quarter left engineering because of family reasons (bit.ly/gA79xQ). The remaining three-quarters quit their jobs or left the field entirely because they did not like the workplace culture, or were unhappy with other aspects of the job.

While blatant gender discrimination in the workplace is rare, the subtle, everyday instances of bias that women experience create a snowball effect that, over time, can be overwhelmingly off-putting.

More than half of female scientists have experienced gender bias, according to a 2010 survey by the American Association for the Advancement of Science for L’Oréal. Examples include being ignored in meetings, students calling you Mrs. instead of Dr. or Professor, receiving unwanted comments on your appearance, and hearing that you were hired not on merit, but because you’re a woman.

If all of this makes a future where women choose a career based solely on their talents seem far off, then behold the US Geological Survey (see box), where women comprise more than half of the top positions. In recent years, however, financial pressures have hampered the agency’s ability to quickly replenish its upper echelons with young female scientists, says its director, Marcia McNutt – an issue they are taking seriously.

“We spend a lot of time thinking about how we can tackle this diversity issue head on,” she says. But in terms of eventually filling the senior roles, she is optimistic&colon; “There are a lot of talented young women out there.”

Becky Oskin is a science writer based in California

The rocky road to equal pay

Lisa Robbins, a senior scientist at the US Geological Survey, says her father fostered her love of the natural world. “He wasn’t a geologist, but even as a little kid, I remember him showing us rocks in the national parks and saying ‘This is a rhyolite, this is a diabase.'”

However, it was her undergraduate advisor at Vanderbilt University in Nashville, Tennessee, that made it all seem possible. “My mentor, Molly Miller, was a new professor, pregnant, and doing field work,” says Robbins. “At that point, I had no idea there was a gender barrier in the field.”

This changed when Robbins earned accolades as a University of Miami graduate student in the early 1980s. “I remember male students trying to cut me down, saying ‘You got that [recognition] because you are a woman,'” she says.

Even with tenure, Robbins earned less than male colleagues at the University of South Florida. “Coming over to the USGS in 1999 doubled my salary,” she says.

Hired in 1999 as director for the agency’s Coastal and Marine Science Center in St. Petersburg, Florida, Robbins was impressed by the number of women scientists at the agency. “The USGS is really great in getting women in leadership positions,” says Robbins. “It’s been very positive to see.”